The First Sea Scout Group

At the end of the 19th Century Britain needed at least 10,000 boys to receive pre-sea training to meet the requirements of the Royal and Merchant Navies. The Training Ship ‘Mercury’ was one of over thirty pre-sea training establishments founded during the Victorian period to meet this need. These ranged from fee-paying training ships for prospective officers in the Merchant Navy to reformatory ships for juvenile delinquents who mostly joined the navy as seamen or stokers. ‘Mercury’, however, was the only privately owned establishment training boys for both the Royal and Merchant Navies.

TS Mercury

TS Mercury was founded at Binstead, Isle of Wight by Charles Hoare in 1885. Sea training was only available for those children with parents that could afford to pay the full fees to an appropriate training ship or those whose circumstances were dire enough for whom a local authority would pay the fees for a reformatory ship. It was Charles’ intention to provide free (or nearly free) schooling and nautical education for the boys that fell between these two categories. In 1892 TS Mercury moved to the River Hamble where land ashore was also acquired.

In 1908, after the death of Charles Hoare, the “helm” of Mercury was taken over by his friend Charles Burgess Fry, the famous scholar and sportsman. Baden-Powell was a frequent visitor to his friend C.B. Fry, so it is not surprising that Scouting got off to an early start on the Hamble.

Early 1908 saw five patrols of Scouts (40 boys) formed at Mercury under the leadership of the Rev. Bloomfield, as a naval training establishment the activities the Scouts carried out had a definite sea going flavour and were indeed referred to in those early years as Marine Scouts.

Following Baden-Powell’s first experimental camp in 1907 held on Brownsea Island, Poole Harbour, Dorset, and the second camp in 1908 at Humshaugh, Northumberland “Scout” magazine advertised a competition for 100 boys to win a chance to participate in a camp on TS Mercury from July 24 to August 7 1909 . It was realised after the competition ran that Mercury could only accommodate 50 boys so Lord Montagu of Beaulieu was approached for permission to camp at Buckler’s Hard. Permission was granted so the lucky 100 were split into two groups, each spending a week camping at Bucklers Hard and a week at TS Mercury.

Although early reference was made about Sea Scouts around the country, a Mrs Wade in her book The Story of Scouting referred to the Mercury camp as, “The beginning of a definite Sea Scout branch of the movement”. EE Reynolds’ made another reference to this camp in his book The Scout Movement when he says, “This was the beginning of Sea scouts”.

Seeing these developments, Baden-Powell voiced a hoped that Scouts would be interested in learning about boat management and seamanship. He stressed the need for young men to prepare themselves for service on their country’s ships. Baden Powell asked his brother, Warrington, to draw up rules for Sea Scouting on the lines of those adopted at Mercury.

This he did and on 10th July 1910 the Mercury Troop was registered as the first ever Sea Scout Troop.

1908 also saw the formation of a patrol of 8 Scouts within the Hamble village. These were boys who were not part of the Training Ship Mercury but who wanted to be Scouts. As there was no Leader available at this time the boys ran the troop themselves, and as a result the troop did not register until later.

In Baden Powell’s book, entitled Young Knights of the Empire, published in 1917, there is the following account of a TS Mercury Scout:

“In December 1910 a Mercury Scout by the name of Maurice Driver jumped overboard in an attempt to save another boy by the name of Hewitt who had fallen into the water, unfortunatley Hewitt did not survive.
Maurice had not thought of the danger to himself but on the first alarm, had with the true spirit of the Scout, at once sprang to the assistance of his comrade in distress. For this he was awarded the Bronze Cross, the highest award for gallantry. Frederick Yateman, who also tried to rescue Hewitt was awarded the Scout Association Silver Cross.”